The samurai way of death

The first, seppuku, refers to the deed itself. There are levels of seppuku or Styles of Seppuku.

" Seppuku is a more correct expression for an act of suicide performed by the process of cutting open the abdomen. Seppuku is better known in the West as hara kiri (belly-cutting), and is a concept so alien to the European tradition that it is one of the few words from the world of the samurai to have entered foreign languages without a need for translation. .................................The cutting of the abdomen released the samurai’s spirit in the most dramatic fashion, but it was an extremely painful and unpleasant way to die, and sometimes the samurai who was performing the act asked a loyal comrade to cut off his head at the moment of agony. ..................kaishaku, or second, to deliver a merciful blow on to his neck at the moment of agony." [Turnbull ]

Styles of Seppuku

• sokotsu-shi, or 'expiatory suicide', the very act itself wiping the slate clean.
• to perform seppukuas the basis of a peace agreement
• kanshi , the making of a protest with the act of Seppuku
• Junshi Junshi following in death
• And for the Samurai women jigai following exact rule of ritual suicide, she did not slit her belly but cut her throat and tied her ankles so as not to be found in disarray when the convulsions of death took her body. Jigai, was familiar to the Samurai women as hara kiri was to her men folk.
• There are other terms that relate color and shade of Ritual Suicide but I am at a loss to remember them , find reference or the books they might be in at the moment.*Smiles* May be later?

The samurai women was also known to use suicide as a form of protest. François Caron (1600-73) of one lady the lord of Hego had engineered the murder of one of his most loyal vassals for the sole purpose to add the beautiful lady in question as one of his concubines. The lady requested of her lord a period of mourning for her dead husband and of course it was granted. To force the issue she would just committed kanshi , jigai with her kaiken any way. She also ask her lord to assemble all of his retainers and the highest dignitaries of the clan and all of his friends as the ceremonies were drawing to a close she suddenly leapt from the tower wall "and broke her neck." Before the eyes of the lord of Hego , his vassals , the dignitaries and assembled friends.[ from Cooper; reports of Japan :1543-1640]